Fiber optic connectors of a wide variety of designs have been employed to terminate optical cables and to facilitate connection of the cables to other cables or other optical fiber transmission devices. A typical fiber optic connector includes a ferrule which mounts and centers an optical fiber or fibers within the connector. The ferrule may be fabricated of such material as ceramic. A ferrule holder or other housing component of the connector embraces the ferrule and may be fabricated of such material as molded plastic. A spring may be disposed within the housing or ferrule holder such that the ferrule is yieldably biased forwardly for engaging another fiber-mounting ferrule of a mating connection device.
A pair of fiber optic connectors or a connector and another optical fiber transmission device often are mated in an adapter which centers the fibers to provide low insertion losses. The adapter couples the connectors together so that their encapsulated fibers connect end-to-end. The adapter may be an in-line component, or the adapter can be designed for mounting in an opening in a panel, backplane, circuit board or other substrate.
Various problems continue to be encountered in designing fiber optic connector assemblies or other connector assemblies, including applications involving backplanes, motherboards, daughterboards and like substrates, panels or the like. Such problems include properly mounting a connector assembly on a substrate. For instance, a connector assembly, an adapter or other connecting device may be mounted through an aperture from a back side of a substrate or panel. Screw-type fasteners are inserted through holes in the substrate from the front side thereof for engaging threaded fastening nuts on the back side of the substrate. Means must be provided to prevent rotation of the fastening nut as the fastening screws are tightened. However, with the screws being inserted through holes from a front side of the substrate, and the fastening nuts being located on a back side of the substrate, this is extremely difficult and even impossible in some applications, particularly in the field. The present invention is directed to solving these problems by a unique system and/or tool for facilitating mounting a connecting device to a substrate by means of rotatable or threaded fasteners.